Airline Biz Blog

JetBlue, Alaska Airlines head J.D. Power list for 2012

Two airlines without much presence in Dallas-Fort Worth lead their market segments in this year’s North American Airline Satisfaction out Wednesday from J.D. Power and Associates.

Alaska Airlines leads the traditional network carrier segment with a score of 678, while JetBlue Airways leads the low-cost carrier segment with a score of 776.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines wasn’t far behind JetBlue at 770. In the network segment, Fort Worth-based American Airlines ranked fifth with a score of 647, which was also the average score for that segment.

The scores are based on a scale that goes up to 1,000 points and measures seven factors: cost and fees; in-flight services; boarding/deplaning/baggage; flight crew; aircraft; check-in; and reservations, in that order of importance.

Here’s what J.D. Power had to say about the match between JetBlue and Southwest:

“JetBlue Airways ranks highest among low-cost carriers for a seventh consecutive year, performing particularly well in two factors: in-flight services and aircraft. Southwest Airlines follows closely behind, performing particularly well in four factors: cost and fees; boarding/deplaning/baggage; check-in; and reservation.

“Despite Southwest performing higher in more factors than JetBlue this year, JetBlue’s strong performance, broadly combined with its large advantage in aircraft and in-flight services over Southwest, has enabled JetBlue to retain its highest ranking.”

And the market research firm had this to say about the network carrier group:

“Alaska Airlines ranks highest in the traditional network carrier segment for a fifth consecutive year, performing particularly well in four of the seven factors: boarding/deplaning/baggage; flight crew; check-in; and reservation.

“Air Canada follows just 1 index point behind Alaska Airlines in the segment, performing particularly well in the cost and fees, in-flight services and aircraft factors.

“Delta Air Lines, which moved up two rank positions to third, is the only traditional carrier to improve from 2011, by 9 index points.”

The wide and expanding use of fees is affecting the scores, the firm said.

“Checked baggage fees are a customer sore point and have a notable impact, with satisfaction averaging 85 points lower among passengers who pay to check bags,” J.D. Power said.

“For example, two carriers with the highest satisfaction scores in the study — JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines — do not charge passengers to check the first bag. Additionally, Air Canada, which also does not charge for the first bag, performs particularly well among the traditional network carriers in the cost and fees factor,” it added.

JetBlue entered the Dallas-Fort Worth market only last month when it began offering three flights a day from Boston to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Alaska offers three flights a day from Seattle-Tacoma to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

Here are the rankings from J.D. Power:

Traditional network carriers

Alaska Airlines 678

Air Canada 677

Delta Air Lines 659

Continental Airlines 649

American Airlines 647

Segment average 647

United Airlines 625

US Airways 614

Low-cost carriers

JetBlue Airways 776

Southwest Airlines 770

Segment average 754

WestJet 733

AirTran Airways 698

Frontier Airlines 694

We note that merger partners Continental Airlines and United Airlines have significantly different scores, if a gap of 22 point can be considered significant. The Continental brand has been folded in the United brand this year.

And American Airlines, which is being pursued by US Airways, has a 33-point advantage over its potential buyer.

Also, Southwest Airlines ranks 72 points higher than its merger partner, AirTran Airways, which will continue as a separate but shrinking operation for several more years.

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Terry Maxon writes about items of interest to travelers and the aviation community.